Uganda - morning, Wednesday March 9th - Bwindi, a walk into the forest at Buhoma

As planned we spent the morning walking into the forest from the campground, this time with two armed guards keeping us company as we sought out new species in the forest. It was a short walk but the sheer variety and number of birds made it very interesting and enjoyable.

These included Pale-fronted Negrofinch:



White-chinned Prinia (seen before but good views):



Variable Sunbird:



Petit's Bush-Shrike, both the male:



and female birds:

a Little Green Sunird:

Green-headed Sunbird:

Another Great Blue Turaco:

Which took off - it's out of focus but you can see the size and shape of the bird from the image:

Collared Sunbird:

Another Black-billed Weaver:

and a Black-necked Weaver:

The encounter of the morning though, for me, was with this immature African Goshawk. The bird was incredibly close and vocal which allowed me to photograph it and to enjoy it, a real delight!

As soon as it settled though, it was mobbed by a Little Sparrowhawk amongst others, so moved on to settle in the shade:

This was real goose-bumps birding encounter, thoroughly enjoyable and big smiles all round :)

Sadly we'd run out of time in Bwindi. In retrospect I would have allowed more time, probably 2 - 3 more days in the area of both Buhoma and Ruhija to spend more time birding this amazing forest.

Uganda - afternoon, Tuesday March 8th - Bwindi, birding around our camp

We waited out the hottest and quietest part of the day in our tent at the Buhoma Community, before having a wander around our campsite, though in truth the majority of this was time spent spotting birds as they moved through the forest with us sat on the balcony watching (the tent being on a fixed platform with a toilet and shower attachment to the rear).

We weren't disappointed, adding a number of new species to the growing holiday list, including Yellow White-eye:



Tambourine Dove:




Grey-backed Camaroptera (also known as the Bleating Bush-Warbler due to it's frequent lamb-like calls):



Brown-throated Wattle-eye, here the male:

Who was later joined by a female:





though she didn't seem to get the response she wanted from the male so soon headed off again. And finally, Brown-capped Weaver:

On the basis we had another post-dawn walk planned we decided to head-up for an early dinner and a few beers as the light faded.